When on the road and looking for an overnight stop don’t drive by campgrounds with “Campground Full” signs at their entrance. Often, rangers and campground hosts are too busy to update their campsite status. They may wait to post “open” signs only after a number of sites are available, not just one or two.
Even if the campground is packed, the ranger or camp host may know of one coming up later in the day. And if not, they may know of nearby campgrounds that have vacancies. Some campgrounds — especially public campgrounds like state parks — have overflow parking good for a night or two.
Rangers and camp hosts might seem annoyed when you ask if there’s a site available when a sign plainly says there is not. Still, it always pays to ask before moving on. You’ll often get lucky!
And this is one reason why we get so much traffic zipping through the campground far above safe speed, endangering children, ignoring the “full” sign, the “sites by reservation only” signs, rushing to get that site that might be free before someone else gets it.
Thanks.
—National Park Campground Host